Spring is in the air and in my glass!

I love Spring. The problem is, in Virginia, we don't get much of a Spring. We get about a month if we're lucky. It's just like Fall. On average, we go from 30 degrees to 80 degrees and then 80 degrees to 30. I want a happy medium. Everyone says I should move to San Diego. No thanks. California has its own problems of which I don't want to be part.

I am not a fan of Winter at all. The snow is pretty as long as it's nowhere near me. I like seeing it fall from the sky but I don't like when it sticks. I also don't like the cold and hate the cumbersome feeling of thick, heavy clothes. I love the crisp air in the Fall when there are warm days and cool nights - just enough to wear shorts and a hoodie with sandals sitting outdoors by a fire pit or strolling along the beach.
I feel alive.


I suppose for almost the same reasons, I enjoy Spring. It signifies the ending of a long, cold, miserable and depressing winter season for me. It instantly brings me a sense of rebirth, renewal of spirit and an abundance of newfound hope. I love Easter and it ties into the beauty of the beginning of the Spring season for me. Mentally, I feel as if it's a way to start over. I feel alive.


I love flowers. I especially love Spring flowers as they are bursting up through the ground. There's nothing like seeing that first green sprouting out of the ground in the Spring.  I get excited walking out of my front door every morning and seeing something new. I love being in my garden - it's a form of therapy really. I don't spend nearly as much time in it as I want (or should) but the time I do spend tending to it is quite special.  

Two weeks ago, I saw the first signs of daffodils in my garden and it instantly brought a smile to my face. That sense of hope, renewal and rebirth instantly enveloped my spirit. A week later, I had my first daffodil bloom of the season and it gave me such hope. Not long after, my hyacinth started to bloom and just yesterday my favorite flower of all decided to show its lovely face - the tulip.

Two days ago, the temperature was 75 and sunny. Yesterday, we had a high of 48 and it was gloomy and rainy all day. Today is much of the same. But my heart still smiled because my flowers are getting the water they need to flourish. My tulips have already started to slightly show some color through their green skin and I am anxiously awaiting to see them burst into full bloom.

Imagine the scent of a rainy springtime day in April when the new flowers are just beginning to pop up out of the ground as they are awakened from a long, cold winter. The freshness of the falling rain as it seeps into the earth. The hint of sweet aromatics in the air.
 That feeling of rebirth.. that feeling of hope.. that renewal of spirit.

That scent is exactly what I was instantly reminded of when I smelled this delightful
cranberry-colored wine.

 Spring in a glass.

2013

Teutonic Wine Company

Bergspitze

"All cool climate, all the time" is the motto of native Portlander winemaker Barnaby Tuttle and his wife, Olga.  (By the way what a cool name. Barnaby Tuttle.) All of Barnaby's wines are produced from fruit where the growing season is long and cool which allows the fruit to hang longer on the vines resulting in greater complexity.  After meeting a German wine importer in 2003, Barnaby became obsessed with esoteric cool-climate wines. As a result, he set out to produce lean/low alcohol wines that maintain their sense of place and varietal structure; wines low in alcohol and high in acidity.  One of his vineyards is the highest vineyard, with an elevation of 1250ft, in the Willamette Valley. Barnaby was also given an opportunity to plant a small vineyard west of Oregon's coast range and only 22 miles from the Pacific Ocean which is considered Oregon's first coastal vineyard.

Unlike most Oregon Pinots, this wine is light and has much minerality which makes it a perfect complement to food. With no oak, spice or dark fruit flavors, the first sip of Bergspritze reminded me of a piece of watermelon-flavored Jolly Rancher candy. Just as the scent of a Spring day surprised me, so did the flavor of this Pinot. 

While Bergspitze is not a typical Willamette Valley Pinot, I definitely find it intriguing.

It is the perfect wine to embrace and usher in the start of Spring in all its wondrous glory.

 Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.

- Lao Tzu